Immanuel Wilkins, Lars Danielsson and Milena Jančurić among highlights of Belgrade Jazz Festival 2022

Funding cuts are of course commonplace everywhere post-covid, but to receive such a blow just weeks before the festival was due to start could have been terminal. With judicial pruning (six shows were lost) and focusing on just one main venue to reduce production costs the festival team pulled it off magnificently.

The opening night of the festival (based in the Dom Omladine Youth Centre) featured a fully Serbian programme. The opening show featured the four-piece band Schime led by saxophonist Luka Ignjatović and pianist Sava Miletić. They were joined on stage by the string orchestra Muzikon playing new music written for this event. The concert excelled in its balance of composed music and improvisation - the music flowed freely and effortlessly with everyone on stage totally immersed in the soundscape they were producing.

The rest of the evening was devoted to a showcase of Serbian musicians – two bands and one pianist – the Milena Jančurić Quartet, Aleksander Jovanović Shljuka (solo piano) and the Power Nap Trio. Shljuka is a hugely gifted pianist – his concert featuring a plethora of different jazz styles played quite expertly. I didn’t feel however that the audience truly discovered the real talent behind the gloss.

Milena Jančurić (pictured above) on the other hand wears her heart on her sleeve – her excellent and well-crafted compositions were a joy to listen to. The flute is a wonderful and under used instrument in jazz, but in her hands, she takes it centre stage and makes it shine. The last of the three Serbian bands to play, the aptly named Power Nap Trio presented a very interesting and original sound. Marko Curčić on electric bass and effects is the ambient pendulum swinging between Predrag Okiljević (sax) and Aleksander Škorić (drums & percussion). The effect is dream-like and hypnotic but at times quite avant-garde, music to fill your head and clear your mind.

The highlight of the second evening was without doubt Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob. The band are best known for their deconstruction and mostly irreverent reconstruction of popular songs.

Playing covers or their own tunes the band are downright infectious – Kenny Wollesen (drums) and Tony Scherr (double bass) lay down a thumping beat giving Bernstein (slide trumpet) and Briggan Krauss (alto sax) a massive canvas to splurge all over. Sexmob music is just so much fun, it’s vibrant, beautifully crafted, and never takes itself too seriously. Dominic Wania followed Sexmob with a beautiful solo piano set featuring tunes by the Polish greats Seifert, Komeda and Stanko along with his own compositions.

Two contrasting performers took the stage for the third evening of the festival, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, and bassist Lars Danielsson (pictured above) with his Liberetto project. I was a little disappointed in Cohen’s set which while technically excellent, to me lacked any passion or fire. He ended his concert with the ‘Second Movement’ of Ravel’s piano concerto in G, which just didn’t work. The following concert by contrast was overflowing with passion and fire. For Liberetto bassist Lars Danielsson has assembled a trio of outstanding players.

The fire in the band comes from pianist Grégory Privat who is an incredible soloist – his fingers burning up and down the keyboard, hammering the keys as if his life depended on it. But there is much more than just speed to Privat’s playing – when sensitivity is required, he can be subtle with the softest of touches and in the ballads he played mellow and let the piano sing. Privat may be the obvious front man but he is nothing without the brilliance of the band beside him. Drummer Magnus Öström, guitarist John Parricelli and Danielsson on double bass are a formidable combination (each old enough to be Privat’s father!). Danielsson’s compositions are full of life and melody reflecting in part his Swedish folk heritage, each tune a story to be imagined and followed.

The Orchestre National De Jazz performed their new piece ‘Rituals’. This suite of music was primarily written for four vocalists and 13 instrumentalists. Conducted by guitarist Frédéric Maurin (who also composed a piece as did singers Laila Martial and Ellinoa). The music follows a theme of exploring everyday rituals - Martials composition ‘The Offensive Wife’ a highlight.

Alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins (pictured top) has been making big waves since he burst on the jazz scene a few years ago. Wilkins style is to play long dense solos without compromise. He grabs your attention keeping you hanging on with his long cyclic improvisations as his band converse with him searching out something hidden deep in the music. It is not necessarily an easy show to listen to – but it is an essential show to listen to. If jazz is to survive and grow it needs players like Wilkins to lead the way.

The final evening of the festival featured arguably the most enjoyable concert – the Omar Sosa Trio with the RTS Big Band. Sosa was playing his Jaques Morelenbaum-arranged homage to Afro-Cuban music ‘Es:sensual’. This is basically a ‘Big Band greatest hits’ album of previous Sosa material that he recorded with the NDR Big Band in 2018, and it’s joyous, life affirming and above all hugely enjoyable – all played at the highest level.

Sosa’s Trio featuring Childo Thomas (double-neck bass), Ernesto Simpson (drums) along with RTS percussionist Lazaro Del Toro Vega laid down that infectious Cuban beat with Sosa (pictured above), permanently smiling, driving the music along and playing wonderful intricate solos. The RTS big Band conducted by the effervescent Filip Bulatović were superb.

One of the highlights of the show that will live long in the memory was during ‘Cha Cha du Nord’. Bulatović showing off his multitasking skills by conducting while Cha Cha Cha’ing across the front of the stage.

I felt a little sorry for Nubya Garcia who had to follow this concert, although she played very well and her band were great, pianist Deschanel Gordon was superb. The huge energy from the first show was just too much resulting in this show seeming a little flat, but Garcia was very much appreciated by those who stayed to listen.

This year’s festival may not have had the same high number of concerts as previous editions, but what it lacked in quantity it certainly made up for in quality. The slightly more relaxed feeling because of this was most welcome.